Neighbour keeping footballs

ThumbTaxed

Hi there

My neighbour has issues and will not give back my kids footballs if they go into her garden. Note that if they do it is usually because the kids mis control a ball, they don't take shots in that direction.

I rang the guards and they called and retrieved the balls a few weeks ago.

In the last 2 weeks she has kept another ball and frisbee. The Frisbee was a gift to my 7 year old from his nanny and when the 2 kids call to get the stuff back she won't answer the door.

She is not someone to speak with either. She is likely to shout and then claim I was rude. She is a strange person.

I don't want to bother the guards again so is there anything I can do. To me this is theft.

iwillhtfu

If it keeps happening maybe you need to look at a higher fence.

Put up a higher fence or net and stop bothering your neighbour.

Darc19

How is it theft?

Please explain.

shtpEdthePlum

I'd ignore someone who was constantly knocking at the door to retrieve their stupid stuff as well.

shtpEdthePlum

Lol I just saw "to me this is theft"

It could be rape for all the guards would care because that's your unsubstantiated opinion which doesn't matter a jot in the eyes of the law.

If I plant something on someone they haven't stolen it. Same thing happening here.

Wow the more i think about it the more I'm glad I'm not that misfortunare neighbour, you are something else.

"Note that if they do it is usually because the kids mis control a ball..."
Implying that sometimes it's on purpose. Semantics i know, but like what if they are intentionally doing it? How annoying must that be for her?

Also you called the gardai over a football. You called the police to the residence beside you because your child is either a little bollocks or has dyspraxia.

Montage of Feck

Throw a big bar of dairy milk over the fence.

qwerty13

Stop being so inconsiderate, and bothering your neighbour.

daheff

If it's a regular occurance then I can see why the neighbour might be annoyed by it. But they should still give the stuff back.


Maybe you should go play football/frisbee on the local green area instead?

YellowLead

I think if it happens a lot most people would be annoyed.
Perhaps your kids should go to a green if there is one if they are playing football or frisbee and are old enough to give it welly so it goes flying over a wall? I can’t imagine many people playing frisbee in a back garden (of a housing estate).

It is mean of her to keep stuff - she should just throw it over at the end of the day or the next day (not when the door is buzzed that’s just annoying).

But equally if your kids can’t keep the balls/frisbees from constantly going over the wall wouldn’t it be better to just suck it up and let them play on the green? Or a park? Or play with other toys that don’t require kicking or throwing.

Also - have you ever talked to her yourself about it before calling the guards, or the kids keep going over to ring the bell?

minikin

Throw in a large dairy milk bar, seems to solve such neighbourly disputes.

Caranica

Higher wall and/or net above the wall (be mindful that planning permission may be required) and then approach her yourself, prove that you're taken precautions to stop it happening again.

zerosugarbuzz

shtpEdthePlum wrote: »

Lol I just saw "to me this is theft"

It could be rape for all the guards would care because that's your unsubstantiated opinion which doesn't matter a jot in the eyes of the law.

If I plant something on someone they haven't stolen it. Same thing happening here.

Wow the more i think about it the more I'm glad I'm not that misfortunare neighbour, you are something else.

"Note that if they do it is usually because the kids mis control a ball..."
Implying that sometimes it's on purpose. Semantics i know, but like what if they are intentionally doing it? How annoying must that be for her?

Also you called the gardai over a football. You called the police to the residence beside you because your child is either a little bollocks or has dyspraxia.

Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed... also no need for the disparaging remarks regarding dyspraxia, not classy.

OP, I am also on your neighbours side on this. You have no right to think she is in any way obligated to return what your children shouldn’t be throwing into her garden. Maybe when the cost of replacing the toys mounts up you will encourage your children to play more considerately. I’d say the guards turned up more to check you out than your neighbour.

shtpEdthePlum

zerosugarbuzz wrote: »

Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed... also no need for the disparaging remarks regarding dyspraxia, not classy.

it was far from classy I was raised.

Also i have dyspraxia myself, i didn't mean it as an offensive comment. It just sounds like with the frequency of the occurrences either the children are doing it on purpose or their coordination is impaired and it might be worth getting it checked out. Or, as other posters suggest, going to the local green instead.

YellowLead wrote: »

It is mean of her to keep stuff - she should just throw it over at the end of the day or the next day (not when the door is buzzed that’s just annoying).

I find it hard to imagine her sneaking around gathering up the items and putting them in her house.

Most likely she couldn't be bothered going looking for them or she's not outside at the moment because the weather has been crap.

Maybe she's not at home at least some of the times when they call.

Realistically she didn't sign up to be their ball boy. She is well within her rights to be less than vigilant about projectiles coming into her garden.

And from the hyperbolic legal side of things, if the OP feels that it's theft for the neighbour to "keep" the stuff, what if the neighbour claims the ball came in at speed and hit her in the head really hard?

The legal challenge from a similarly false and spurious claim could come back at her just as quickly as she throws it out there.

Xander10

ThumbTaxed wrote: »

Hi there

My neighbour has issues and will not give back my kids footballs if they go into her garden. Note that if they do it is usually because the kids mis control a ball, they don't take shots in that direction.

I rang the guards and they called and retrieved the balls a few weeks ago.

In the last 2 weeks she has kept another ball and frisbee. The Frisbee was a gift to my 7 year old from his nanny and when the 2 kids call to get the stuff back she won't answer the door.

She is not someone to speak with either. She is likely to shout and then claim I was rude. She is a strange person.

I don't want to bother the guards again so is there anything I can do. To me this is theft.

how often is this happening might be important.

once or twice a week? 6/7 times in a day?

Do you encourage your kids to be careful about kicking balls high and annoying neighbours?

Dtp1979

When I was a kid we had a neighbour who was tired of us kicking the ball into his garden. So then he decided to start throwing the ball back, in 2 halves. That soon coped is on from being little shjts. It’s amazing how much our aim improved after this happening a few times

The Royal Scam

We had a neighbour like this , we lived in an estate. We would only ever put maybe 2 or 3 balls over a year and he would burst them and throw them back over so consider yourself lucky. He was such a pr1ck. We stopped knocking and used to climb into the garden and get the balls ourselves so he put glass and grease on top of his walls. Some people just live to be that kind of person. Easiest way is to get the kids to make sure they don't fire them over.

nazmoalex

Dtp, was just about to post the same thing. Sharp knife going through the ball soon sorted that out. Seemed cruel at the time, but we we're using the lamppost outside her house a goal post.
Wonder in this case has the football or frisbe damaged anything in her garden.

The balls and frisbee are not all that are going into her garden. You say the kids are going in there to get them. Up to and including ringing her doorbell. Feck that for a game of cowboys. You had the kids, not her. Why should she have to have them regularly round her gaff. Get them a ping pong table for their ball play.

whisky_galore

Just put up a high net or otherwise stop footballs going in.
Nothing so annoying as other peoples' children.

qwerty13

Suspecting this is a troll post, but why don’t you teach your children some manners?

Your opening comment is that your neighbour has issues. Yeah, she does, your bratty children.

headtheball14

Yes your neighbour certainly does have issues.

Have you considered that firing items into someone's garden then calling to the door looking for them back may be upsetting to someone during level 5 lockdown in a pandemic.

Regardless what the actual risk might be I know a number of people that would see this as threatening behaviour.

crackcrack30

Does she happen to have a cat ?... that sometimes wanders into your garden?

ehm.....

Seriously though ...Don't call the guards for things like this.. and be mindfull of the whole covid era.

Alf Veedersane

There was an episode of Paddington where something similar happened and how they resolved it was by asking Mr Curry to play. He loved that and they all played a game.

Definitely an option to consider. Lots of life lessons in Paddington, if you leave out the copious amounts of marmalade.

listermint

As I was raised to think it's nice to be nice, this neighbour obviously just a grumpy bollix. Kids are kids , kids will play and lose stuff. It cost them more effort being this mean than it does to throw something they find back over the wall every now and then.

I can guarantee what they are creating is an unrepairable relationship down the road. We had a similar neighbor on our road. Only when her husband died years later did she realise how much she needed her neighbours for support and you know what. They gave it to her.

. because it's nice to be nice .

shtpEdthePlum

The person who set up the thread in legal issues about returning footballs is not the person I would be encouraging anyone to rely on.

Buddy Bubs

Can't believe this was posted in legal discussion forum but anyway....this dispute is much more easily solved from your side that from the neighbours side. Other people's children knocking at your door is annoying. And they're probably worried about something hitting a window or breaking something else.

Calling the guards on your neighbour is being nice?

2 items in the 2 weeks since the other ballsss - plural - were retrieved by the guards called out to deal out the justice.

The neighbour is not the problem here.

Darc19

I suspect that the op has poor relationship with the neighbour.

And it may be due to the in op not respecting the neighbour in various other aspects.

A quick look at other posts about the extension and building fences and council planning warnings gives another side to the story.


Op, put yourself in the shoes of your neighbour and you might see where the problem is. Seems to me it's a lot closer than next door

gmisk

I honestly can't believe you called the gardai about it..

Have you tried throwing over a bar of dairy milk as advised?

Balmed Out

FFS kids will be kids and we were all kids once. My neighbours are amazing footballers and play several hours a day if they can. They dont mean it but at least a half dozen times the ball will go into my garden. I just lowered the last section of fence so once or twice a day when they dont hear me in the garden they will hop over and kick however many balls back into their own. Prefer this than playing in front and hitting the car or doing run away knock or something else anti social, spending their days playing football instead of pushing the boundaries of mischief im fairly certain in time i wont have some gurriers living nextdoor in a few years. .

If your going to be unneigourly you can chose any number of other things to piss you off and im sure you will find some and only benefit with a high blood pressure. If you're going to live somewhere with neighbours without very secluded gardens you need to realise balls, cats, drummers, bikers etc are a fact of life.